A comic, allegorical novel about the communication problems that drive a whole town into a frenzy of murderous activity.
Something strange is happening in Homisidehampton. Peter Choppem, the town’s Member of Parliament, is outraged by “impolite” behaviour and he begins a campaign to stamp it out, which involves him performing a vicious form of gardening in other people’s gardens. Meanwhile his wife, Sally, is convinced that everyone is plotting against her and she devises various counterplots to expose their devious tricks, which only seems to result in her deeply wounding her supposed attackers.
The pressing question of Peter’s (or Sally’s) sanity is never raised, as the whole town is preoccupied with the activity of a mass murderer who has been busying himself amongst them for some weeks now. However, the reader will soon become acquainted with what Peter considers to be “gardening” and also with the evil “seeds” that he is attempting to eradicate. It is in this eccentric manner that he has now chosen to serve his community and only you can judge the rights or wrongs of his conduct.
The book is a fast-moving comic novel with vivid characters, some of which are purely comic, while others have their inner, troubled lives portrayed in, sometimes, alarming detail. It is also a book of ideas.